National news and media outlets are already experimenting and films using VR technology were featured at the Cannes’ Film Festival earlier this month.

Now, Brookline is making ready for the next coming, thanks to Brookline Interactive Group (BIG), Brookline’s community cable access.

“We realized this is a tool that our community really needs to learn about. They need to understand how it works, what the impact of it is, they need time to watch how other people react to it,” said Bisbee. “We don’t want people to be blind VR consumers.”

This month, BIG unveiled virtual reality equipment and let visitors test headsets at the annual community open house. Before and after the awards ceremony recognizing resident filmmakers, people cued up to try virtual reality on one of three programs. One featured ocean exploration, another transported visitors to an underwater shipwreck and a visit with a whale, the third was a game involving zombies.

People waiting their turn said it was almost as much fun to watch others experience virtual reality as it was to experience it themselves. Wearing a headset and earphones, holding two controllers, users wandered slowly around, looking up and down, bending down or reaching up to touch objects invisible to others.

One man crouched to touch something. Another woman walked slowly around exploring, a smile on her face. She suddenly looked over her shoulder and ducked to avoid a passing whale.

To a person, testers said the short demonstration was a worthwhile experience.

“That was amazing,” said more than one person after taking off the headset.

Elaine Greenberg, visiting family in Brookline said "It’s a whole different way of looking at things, that’s for sure.”

Her grandson, Gareth Jones, 11, who was up for an award for a film he and a friend produced at BIG, said he loved his test run with VR.

“I felt like it was actually happening. I was standing on a shipwreck, it was amazing…. It felt real,” he said.

Others laughed with friends as they reacted to the virtual reality scene in the headset and debriefed afterward.

Bisbee admits when she first heard the scuttlebutt about virtual reality as the next big thing, she was skeptical.

“When I heard ‘virtual reality,’ I heard gaming,” she said.

It was only after experiencing virtual reality firsthand that she understood. Not only did she get to test out the equipment with fun game-like situations, she was able to experience the a short 360 VR film about Syrian refugees, another on homelessness and a third about the nearly extinct white rhino.

“Nobody gets it until you try it,” she said. For her it was the depth to story-telling that stopped her in her tracks.

“I realized the power of virtual reality to connect on an empathetic level. That’s why I got into it. It completely changed the game for me,” she said.

Bisbee met Nonny de la Peña, who brought the first virtual reality film to the Sundance film festival in 2012. De la Peña and the film are credited with helping open eyes to what 360-film technology could do to really place a viewer in the middle of a story in a way that had not been done before.

In the past year virtual reality has become more accessible, with the release of Google’s cardboard headsets. And Sony is rumored to be releasing a new VR headset later this year.

“I want to educate the community on this new media tool that’s available, making sure people understand what it is,” said Bisbee. “Once they see it [people] start realizing oh wow. This is a game changer.”

There are critics who challenge the notion that virtual reality will turn into the next big thing. But, said Bisbee, right now that is up in the air.

“Right now this new technology is emerging and we have to learn everything we can about it and understand it,” she said, adding that she hoped to help Brookline learn to use it to tell stories at the community level. “Because that’s what we care most about. Community stories, immersive stories that make an impact on people’s lives,” she said.

Have a news tip? Email jfisher@wickedlocal.com See accompanying side bar for info on BIG's VR community grant competition.

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